Nespresso knows Gen Z runs coffee now, so it hired Dua Lipa

There’s a brand new hook to Nespresso’s upcoming global advertising campaign: Dua Lipa.

The coffee brand, created by Nestlé in 1986, is teasing that the pop star will be featured in a new ad push called “Vertuo World,” which will debut on April 14 and promises to shepherd a new creative direction. Millennial Dua Lipa will star alongside Oscar-winning actor (and baby boomer) George Clooney, who has been an ambassador for Nespresso since 2006.

A new face for a new generation

Adding Dua Lipa to the mix builds on Nespresso’s efforts to lure a coveted demographic, Gen Z. There are around 70 million of them in the U.S. today, a generation that’s still aging into adulthood but already strongly indicating they like the flavor that coffee offers. An estimated 47% of Gen Z consumers report drinking coffee daily, according to food and beverage data insights provider Tastewise.

“Gen Z is a generation that is not only going to be the future of the category, but it’s also a generation that is highly influential in coffee purchases,” Leonardo Aizpuru, chief marketing officer at Nespresso, tells Fast Company. He says “Vertuo World” will be “by far the biggest campaign that we’ve ever done in our 40-year history” by dollars spent. Nespresso is planning to run the multimillion-dollar Dua Lipa campaign in all global markets the brand operates in, across linear TV, online video, and social channels.

From European luxury to TikTok culture

Dua Lipa’s appointment to serve as a global brand ambassador comes two decades after Nespresso launched its long-running campaign work with Clooney. The coffee scene has changed dramatically, as younger millennials and Gen Z have grown up. The latter has been credited with driving broader trends such as favoring cold coffee, unique creamers, and highly customizable coffee drinks that can be showcased on TikTok. Gen Z’s desire to personalize coffee is also fueling retail demand for coffee machines, with global sales of those devices projected to increase from 89 million in 2024 to 94 million annually by 2029, according to research firm Euromonitor.

Ellie Bamford, North America chief strategy officer for creative agency VML, tells Fast Company that pulling in a celebrity like Dua Lipa can help Nespresso as it extends beyond its sophisticated marketing with Clooney, who tended to evoke “European luxury.” “But I think the simple fact is that the audience ages out,” says Bamford. Dua Lipa, she adds, “has a lot of positive sentiment around her. She’s edgy without being controversial. She’s interesting.”

Over the past couple of years, Nespresso has made more overt efforts to reach out to Gen Z through trendy flavors like the Pistachio Vanilla coffee pod and an Instagrammable, Mediterranean-esque Pantone collaboration.

Why Gen Z matters so much

Nearly two-thirds of adult consumers say that teen and college-age Gen Zers influence where and how they shop, according to Aizpuru, citing data published by communications firm Edelman. With that important cultural currency and rising purchasing power that is expected to increase to $12 trillion by 2030, it has become a strategic priority for Nespresso to make a more conscious effort to lure younger coffee drinkers with a fresher approach.

Aizpuru also vows that Nespresso isn’t replacing Clooney with Dua Lipa. Both will work as brand ambassadors for future marketing endeavors. The company made a similar promise last year when Nespresso created a U.S.-focused marketing campaign around pop singer The Weeknd.

Iced coffee is the real play

While Nespresso is being tight-lipped about all the details of next month’s big campaign, Aizpuru shares that it will include Dua Lipa exploring new recipes for iced coffee, an espresso martini, and a French lavender latte, all nods to the evolving ways consumers are drinking coffee today.

Promoting the machine’s ability to make iced coffees at home is a particularly important priority, as 50% of Nespresso’s coffee machines are used to make iced coffee in U.S. homes. Aizpuru acknowledges, “We just haven’t really leaned too hard into expanding that message.”

The influence gap between Clooney and Dua Lipa

Over the past several years, Dua Lipa has become a prolific spokesperson for luxury and beverage brands, appearing in advertisements for YSL Beauty, Chanel, Porsche, Evian, and Truly Hard Seltzer. Working with Nespresso for her latest endorsement blends the two prominent themes of her past commercial work. “I feel like I have grown up with Nespresso,” the singer said in a prepared statement. “There’s always been a Nespresso machine nearby—at home with my family, on set, or in a hotel room—so teaming up with them was really an easy decision.”

Bamford says fashion-focused brands like Nike and Gucci have done a particularly good job of transitioning to new faces in a similar vein to what Nespresso is trying to achieve. She notes as an example how French fashion brand Christian Dior has maintained a multiyear relationship with Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron while also featuring younger talent like Natalie Portman, Jennifer Lawrence, and Rihanna.

Still, there are some elements of risk in Nespresso’s decision to give Dua Lipa a starring role in future campaigns. “They want to keep the core of who they are and not lose that completely, but obviously attract this newer, more dynamic audience,” Bamford says.

A younger, more socially engaged consumer base is where Dua Lipa has a clear edge over Clooney. “When we launched this campaign in 2006, Facebook wasn’t even a platform that you used to communicate, much less TikTok,” says Aizpuru.

The actor, like many A-list Hollywood stars of his generation, has no public social media pages. He became famous in an era when that wasn’t a requirement to become successful. Dua Lipa, meanwhile, is very much of her generation. The British-born singer has 11.2 million followers on TikTok and nearly 89 million on Instagram.

“Influence is not happening on the Today show or in a print ad,” Bamford says. “It’s happening on TikTok.”

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